Beyond Red Ribbons: What you need to know this World AIDS Day

For an organisation that works in the field of HIV every day, World AIDS Day can descend like a double-edged sword. On this one day, the attention of media houses, politicians, government departments and businesses focuses sharply on HIV. Our mobile teams are booked up months in advance and we hussle and strain to meet the massive demand for our services at community events and workplaces. This is good. Of course it is. We hope it means that more people are being reached with messages about how to stay healthy, and are accessing the services that will help them to achieve that. But with all this rush and hype, it is easy to become overwhelmed and to miss some of the key issues of the moment. We’ve selected a few highlights and debates (some light-hearted) as a quick guide to HIV in 2015.

‘Test and treat’ or ‘Treat all’:
It sounds simple, but it could be revolutionary. The idea of treating people who are diagnosed with HIV as soon as they are diagnosed instead of waiting until their CD4 count drops to a certain level doesn’t sound like a big change, but it could be. Treating people living with HIV with antiretrovirals sooner rather than later means they stay healthier, and they are also much, much less likely to transmit the virus to others. This is a WHO recommendation as of September this year.

Treatment as prevention:
This is a similar concept to ‘test and treat’; it suggests that providing people with antiretroviral treatment is, in itself, a form of prevention. This is because ARVs lower a person’s viral load to the point where it is very difficult for transmission of HIV to take place. A study cited in aUNAIDS report showed that in one community in KwaZulu-Natal where ARV coverage was 30-40%, a person was 38% less likely to be infected with HIV than in a similar community where coverage was only 10%.

PreP:
What if you could take a pill that could prevent HIV? Well, you can. It’s called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PreP. It’s not a vaccine because you are only protected for as long as you take the one pill a day. TB/HIV Care’s AVAC fellow, John Mutsambi, has been advocating for the roll-out of PreP for young and vulnerable women. You can read more about this here and here

90 90 90
This is a strategy proposed by UNAIDS one of the strategies to end the AIDS epidemic. It aims to ensure that 90% of people living with HIV know their status by 2020 (so testing people is really important here), to ensure that 90% of people living with HIV receive antiretroviral treatment by 2020 (linking people to care after diagnosis is important here), and to ensure that 90% of those on ARVs are virally suppressed by 2020 (keeping people in care will be important here).

Fast-Tracking and Front-loading Investments:
The UNAIDS launched its World AIDS Day Report today announcing its strategy to reach the new Sustainable Development Goal of ending AIDS by 2030. This strategy includes focusing on the people most affected by HIV and on the locations where they are. The strategy calls for ‘front-loading’ investments in these locations and on services aimed as these populations instead of spreading the investment over a greater percentage of the population in a larger area.

Condom Emojis
What’s that now? Durex has launched a campaign to ask people to call for a condom emoji to be developed. What’s an emoji? Those little pictures you can insert on your phone when texting … or sexting. Durex believes the emoji will make it easier to talk (or chat) about safer sex. You can join the campaign by mentioning #CondomEmoji as much as possible on your social media feeds. Happy, safe tweeting! Read more here.

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In 2017, a report by the Global TB Caucus warned that unless countries step up to #EndTB, tuberculosis will cost the world economy close to $1 trillion in lost economic output by 2030: http://bit.ly/2HlaxEf
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